The Stecoah Township Rescue
Squad and Fire Department, Inc., has been serving Stecoah and surrounding
communities since 1962.

In June of 1963 the department
became incorporated and began to raise money to buy equipment. They began
with talent shows, bingo, wrestling events and even standing at intersections
selling Cokes.

The original
members of Stecoah Fire and Rescue pose for a group photo.

One of our original
vehicles

The squad serves the
Stecoah Township which includes the communities of Stecoah, Sawyers Creek,
Tuskeegee and Panther Creek. To be able to serve all our community, members
from these pulled together to make the Stecoah Township Rescue Squad.
The Stecoah School gave the use of its old School Bus Garage to house
the equipment, until in 1972 a new building was built. In 1976 the department
started the Fire Department side. In 1987 the Squad had gotten the Fire
Department rated through the state to serve our district. In 1992 the
squad was one of the first in Western North Carolina to provide a combination
department, which includes having Rescue, EMS and Fire programs under
one department, and provide Advanced Life Support (Intermediate Level)
Ambulance.

The department today
has in operation a rated fire department, two advanced life support ambulances
and rescue department.

The squad is able
to serve its township better and backs up the Graham County EMS when needed.
We are able to do missions that include search and rescue, missing or
injured individuals, search for drowning victims, Haz-Mat, vehicle extraction,
high and low angle rescue,
confined space rescue, and trail rescue with the use of four-wheelers.
We work close with the people in our community to assist them in need,
during bad weather or just getting supplies to those in need. The squad
is the site for the Buckle-Up program for Graham County.

The squad has had
its equipment and members used in some of the movies that were filmed
in Graham County including, "The Fugitive", "Nell",
"In Dreams", and "Forces of Nature".

The department is
known as the 600 Units. Our department is proud to help our county when
in need and we enjoy working with our other county units and neighboring
counties as well.

To this day we still
raise money to operate on. In the past we have done talent shows, gospel
singings, tough man contests, mud slings, and gun rifles, taking chances
on anything we can sell.